Koori no Te, Siberia Yokuryuu-ki (Frozen Hands: Tales of a Siberian Prison Camp Survivor)

Based on OZAWA’s father’s memories of his experience in a Siberian concentration camp, and a wealth of other material, Koori no Te, Siberia Yokuryuu-ki was completed in 2008 after two and a half years of work. Al l three volumes were or iginal ly published in a coterie magazine. Despite the fact that the Second World War had ended, over 760,000 (according to some estimates) Japanese soldiers were detained for years in Siberian labor camps. Struggling to stay alive in the extremely cold region without sufficient food, the prisoners were forced to per form hard labor. This ultimately resulted in the deaths of over 60,000. The laments of those who are attempting to survive the extreme condi tions por trayed in these pages are deeply affecting.

Plenty of people have experienced something “terribly unjust.” And even more have failed to take action despite realizing what was happening. As long as such people exist, this work will continue to exude an undiminished brilliance. While humbly accepting the fact that her father didn’t want to talk about his experiences, OZAWA Yuki firmly believed that his story deserved to be told. She interviewed him and single-mindedly set out to convert his words into pictures. OZAWA’s 250-page manga (originally shown at COMITA, an exhibition of self-produced manga) is imbued with a weight and depth that go beyond the subject matter she depicts, confronting us head-on and crystallizing into a work that demands our attention.